SAN FRANCISCO -- Dennis Banks, longtime leader
of the American Indian Movement, leaves San Francisco
on the Sacred Run on Friday, with a caravan headed to the Bush Ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Banks said this year's Sacred Run caravan will take the message ofpeace to
George Bush's home. The caravan will also scout out the routefor next year's 30th Anniversary of the Longest Walk.

There
will be a Longest Walk meeting at the Intertribal FriendshipHouse, 523 International Blvd, in Oakland, California, (between 5th and6th Avenues) on Feb. 14th at 6 p.m.

The
Caravan to Crawford will leave on Friday morning, February 16.

Banks said, "Because the 2008 event will be a 30-year
rewalk of the1978 walk, many people will be walking with us: elders, families,children, and people from many walks
of life. We expect the number ofparticipants to be in the hundreds as we leave San Francisco, andthousands as we arrive in Washington, D.C. We will need help, lots ofhelp!"

Jimbo Simmons, staff at the International
Indian Treaty Council in SanFrancisco,
said efforts would focus on bringing more attention to theneed to protect American Indian sacred places.

Simmons,
among those on the Longest Walk in 1978, said Banks organizedthe Longest Walk while at DQ University in California, during a timewhen there was a push for the abrogation of
Indian Treaties andreservations.

The Longest Walk of 1978 will be honored during the anniversary LongestWalk
and include a collection of photos and videos now being organized.

The Sacred Run caravan to Crawford, Texas, and Banks' message of peace,comes as the United States Congress is focused on the war in Iraq.

Earlier, in August of 2005, Banks visited Camp Casey in Crawford
andhonored Cindy Sheehan for her fight for justice.

While thanking Banks and the others who came in support, Sheehanremembered
her own son's death in Iraq.

"So it is official,
Casey had his blood shed in Iraq for OIL," Sheehanwrote.

"He
died so we could pay over 3.00/gallon for gas. Like I suspected allalong, my dear, sweet son: almost 1900 others; and
tens of thousands ofinnocent Iraqis died so the oil fields wouldn't 'fall into the hands ofterrorists' and so George
and his immoral band of greedy robber baronscould become wealthier."

For more information on the Sacred Run:Sacred
Run 2007 & 2008http://www.sacredrun.org--International Indian Treaty CouncilJimbo Simmons: jimbosimmons@yahoo.comTelephone (415)641-4482